Then he wore the scant summer and winter suits of negro cloth; now he must have working suits and Sunday suits, and each must be cut with some vague reference to prevailing fashions, and made up by hands that, under the old regime, would have been busy beside his own in the cotton field.
Reid describes the evolution of clothing needs for freedmen compared to their time in slavery.
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Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.